How to Enjoy Your Forgotten Superpowers

I forged my own blade yesterday, from an unassuming piece of plain steel. With some expert instruction, I pounded it on an anvil, ground the blade down, fitted it with a brass hilt, polished and sharpened it. The handle is made out of native timber that was salvaged from a dismantled insane asylum.

I joked with others that I created an heirloom yesterday, but maybe I really did. It is totally unique and feels like a part of me already. A fine, simple tool like a solid knife bestows a certain joy on its owner: the joy of new capability.

Human beings, without outside help, do not have the capability to cut anything without chewing on it. Until people started borrowing the capabilities of objects around them (such as the sharp edges of rocks) certain fibers and materials were simply uncuttable! Try cutting steaks with your bare hands.

Today we use tools without even thinking about it. Without a doubt, you are at this moment surrounded by (and draped in) all sorts of tools, equipment and technology. There are probably at least a dozen items in operation right now that are making your moment much better than it would otherwise be: clothing, writing utensils, computers, chairs, clocks, desks and eyeglasses for starters. If we had to face even one day as the naked, possessionless creature Mother Nature made us, it would be one hell of a trial.

You are just a naked animal, plus stuff

It is humbling to remember that we modern people are essentially the same as people were 20,000 years ago, only we have a lot more stuff. I doubt we are much happier though. Most depictions of prehistoric people characterize them as bumbling thugs, yet we know that they were virtually the same animal as you and your friends. They had the same abilities of reason and discernment, the same capacity for intuition and compassion.

These individuals had to deal with this same volatile planet and its deadly extremes long before we learned to walk, let alone wield a frying pan or drive a car. But they did their daily rounds without the advantage of high technology, which you and I found ourselves born into haphazardly, without having earned it.

They had to contend with the same human dilemmas we do: angst, ethics, envy, fear, confusion, humiliation, low self-esteem. They must have done well, for the result of their ingenuity and aptitude is the modern society you see all around you today. They gave birth to us. Evidently, they found ways to handle things.

The joy of tools and things

Early people did have their tools, though they were few and simple. Yet they still greatly expanded the capacity of people to do their work. If your goal was to bring home as many blueberries as you could in a half-day, consider how much better you would be at it if you had a simple wicker basket at your disposal. Consider how difficult a task it would be if you didn’t.

An early man with a simple homemade hand axe and a crude sheepskin tunic would have been several times more formidable than his naked, empty-handed neighbor. A gang of hunters might manage to barehand a few fish from a stream, if they’re in the right place at the right time. The same gang, armed with spears, could fell a mammoth.

You could imagine how attached early people would have been to their tools, because facing life without them would make the struggle many times more difficult. With only a dozen or so possessions, a person’s attitude towards his ‘stuff’ would be quite different than we treat our stuff today. One would pick up his possessions as if they mattered, knowing they couldn’t be readily replaced. The loss of one tool would be a dramatic loss of capability. Lose your knife and suddenly everything is uncuttable again. Lose your basket and suddenly you can only carry a handful of blueberries. Lose your blanket and suddenly nightfall becomes deadly.

Imagine being charged with full responsibility for your own existence and future, with only your body and mind and whatever tools you are fortunate enough to have in your possession. Simple items such as shoes would be immensely important, because you’d be acutely aware of the great measures by which they make you more capable.

Well, even today, that is actually all we’re all doing: making do with the bodies and tools we have. We tend to lose sight of this simple truth though, and fall under some sort of post-industrial spell that convinces us life is more complicated than that.

There seems to be much more to consider these days. We’re eternally distracted by things happening off-stage: waiting bills, unread blogs, slumping economies, must-see TV that’s on later.

Perhaps there really is more to consider. The world seems to be quite complex. The information age given us endless trains of thought to pick up and play with. But if you were to hike out into the bush with only a few trusted items and an ironclad will to survive the night, suddenly everything would get a lot simpler. Your mind would gravitate away from your nation’s politics and earthquakes in far-off lands, and towards the rainclouds gathering on the horizon, the contents of your pack, and the trusty knife you made from steel and insane asylum. The world would appear to get smaller and more real, but it’s actually your awareness tightening around the hard reality unfolding right where you actually are — an unusual sensation for many of us spoiled, distracted urbanites.

The problem then, is not that the world is more advanced or more complex, but that our technological lives have made us become more accustomed to thinking about places we aren’t currently at, people we aren’t with, and things we are not doing. Mass production has brought affordable tools to everyone in excess. It has given us mass expectations, and minimal gratitude.

It is another stinging irony of being human: our affinity and aptitude for making tools has left us bored and underappreciative of them. Our lives are so full of stuff that they cease anymore to be things. Another depressing side-effect of mass production is that we accept such poor quality as the norm. We can have more stuff if we opt for the least expensive stuff — that which was churned out with the least pride and offers the least joy.

When it comes to tools and equipment, we are so hopelessly accustomed to wielding the incredible capabilities that they lend us, that we almost forget how little we can do without them. Our technology turns us all into superheroes. Armed only with what’s on my person at this moment, I can see in the dark, stand in the rain and stay dry and warm, speak across oceans, teleport written words to thousands of people, start a fire, tell time to the second, transport a liter of potable water with no risk of spillage, capture near-perfect moving and static images of any person, place or event I see, listen to music played by musicians who died before I was born, and if need be, cut to ribbons anyone who stands in my path.

Back home I’ve got even more superhero powers awaiting my return. Among the most powerful is a black, shiny machine that can accelerate my body and several hundred pounds of my possessions to over a hundred kilometers per hour, while I sit comfortably in an upholstered throne, dry and warm, listening to more dead musicians play music forty years ago at my command. I can cross nations without leaving my seat.

You and your tools

Almost every time I use a Bic lighter, I think about how much a prehistoric person would value such a device. They would kill for it. There is a memorable scene in Tom Hanks’ Castaway, (before the film collapses into a bizarre and transparent FedEx advertisement.) Upon the hero’s return to civilization after being alone and island-bound for four years, he plays idly with a fireplace lighter at a Christmas party. Dimly mesmerized, he swallows his bitterness towards the preoccupied crowd around him who could never appreciate their access to such a miracle, nor to any other.

Imagine then, how much joy and productivity a prehistoric human would derive from a flashlight, a plastic water bottle, or a steel-bladed knife. These humble items, flea-market junk to you and me, would be revered and worshiped by your stone-age relatives, because they would not have lost sight of who they are without them.

Throughout my travels, I’ve only carried a backpack (an extremely useful — no, indispensable — item in itself) full of clothing and maybe a dozen other tools: pencils, paper, a water bottle, a camera, some band-aids, a toothbrush and some reading material. That’s not to mention my laptop — an item of such incalculable, staggering power a caveman could not conceive of it.

How to recall your superpowers

As often as possible, return to the mindset of profound gratitude for the tools at your disposal. Chances are you don’t even think of most of them as tools: your shirts and pants, your stationery, your phone.

Here’s an exercise to get you into that mindset:

Close your eyes and imagine the prehistoric version of you. An uncanny clone: the same body, but without clothes or tools. He (or she, of course) has access to all your innate mental and physical capabilities, but none of the superpowers normally lent to you by technology.

Really put yourself in his shoes (or shoeless feet, rather.) You find yourself in the forest, a place of immense natural beauty, but also considerable danger. You are aware that night will come soon, bringing with it a menacing chill and impenetrable darkness. You know you must be resourceful and get busy immediately. There’s no cell phone, no 911.

Picture the physical reality of the setting: you are a graceful, potent, intelligent creature, but as with your ancestors, your powers do not extend beyond what Mother Nature gave you. It is a mild day, but you feel the breeze on the whole surface of your bare body. The thought of that alone would make most modern humans uncomfortable; the idea of no clothes, in any setting, is already nervewracking. Once upon a time there were no clothes.

But you’re naked and empty-handed — as you and every other person were at birth — and you know that your fate is up to you. So you must make do. You set out looking for water and food, and a sheltered place to spend the night.

So your prehistoric clone manages to make it through a few days like this. Perhaps he’s found a handy walking stick that could also double as a weapon. Through his resourcefulness and will, he’s survived a handful of near-disasters and his confidence is bolstered. Life is not especially comfortable, but he’s made it so far. Your industrious clone has made an adequate lean-to for shelter and found a reliable source of food.

Imagine then, your primitive clone comes across a rucksack in a clearing. It’s made of a tough, durable fiber (which you would know to be nylon.) Inside are a pound of beef jerky, a 1.5L bottle of Dasani, a Zippo, a North Face two-man tent, a pair of fine hiking boots, a pair of pants, a t-shirt, a fleece, and a Swiss Army knife.

Suddenly your clone is an indomitable superhero, worlds of capability beyond his or her natural self (and the competition), all with a few hundred dollars worth of simple gear. A naked, empty-handed human is already a force to be reckoned with, and tools multiply that power many times over.

Now, look around the room at everything you have working for you. Decent clothes, tools galore, a most importantly, a society that produces your food, lights your way, disposes of your waste and gives you a way to do just about everything you want.

We all live our daily lives in these states of immense personal power, yet it’s so common to feel like we don’t have enough to take on the world. Clearly we do, if generations of naked ancestors were able to pull off a worthwhile life.

So don’t forget, we live and work in situations of capability and luxury that most of history’s humans could not imagine. If you forget, pick up just about anything in your house and remember that a caveman might have killed for one. Enjoy your superpowers. Your only kryptonite is complacency.

Photos by David Cain and Steven Martin

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What a great post David!
It is so true that most of the tome we do not appreciate what we have. We think that we do not have enough and that we cannot live comfortably but we simply forget how much worse our life could have been just a couple hundred years ago (not speaking about cavemen of course!) I can’t imagine living without a shower (taking a bath about every month, uuugh!) and without electricity, going to bed as soon as it gets dark outside and not being able to stay in touch with people who are more than 10 miles away.
Your post definitely reminds me how important it is to be mindful and appreciative of my life. And by the way, your knife looks great :-) I am sure it will work much better than any other that you could buy at the store.
.-= Anastasiya´s last blog ..10 Ways to Practice Mindfulness and Reach Life Balance =-.

Thanks Anastasiya. You’re right, we don’t even have to go back more than a hundred years to find typical lifestyles that were much more physically taxing and salt-of-the-earth. I often think of the pioneers who settled my province in the nineteenth century. They had to deal with the same awful winters we do today, but without electricity, living in a house made of sod.

Spending some serious time in Cambodia, I’m often reminded of my superpowers. But I’m more often amazed by the folks that haven’t any desire to develop their own superpowers. Or simply acquire the superpowers at hand.

To each their own. But I’m definitely a superpower kind of chick.

Thanks for this poignant reminder to appreciate and utilize the tools at hand.
.-= Nelia´s last blog ..Savor =-.

Hi Nelia. Yeah I enjoy my superpowers too. I think of it whenever I pack up a daypack to go for a walk. I happened to toss my flashlight in there today, and guess what? On the way back from my hike I stumbled across a cave, and did a bit of spelunking… until the battery died :(

The internet is mind-bogglingly powerful. I can check what the weather will be tomorrow, I can display a map of every road in the country, if I took the time to look I’m sure I’d find a library of public domain literature. And this gem: http://www.topatoco.com/graphics/qw-cheatsheet-print-zoom.jpg :P
And it’s hard to believe Youtube and Wikipedia didn’t exist just a few years ago.

Yes, the internet alone is an unimaginably powerful resource. That’s another great point too: we’re almost already hooked on Wikipedia and Youtube, and they’ve been around such a short time. I wonder what incredible tools the future holds.

mm thank you, your travels and writings inspire me on a weekly basis and I will be embarking upon my own world journey after I return from my treeplanting contract in Alberta this summer. I will always keep this in mind as I move throughout the world, realizing the value of the underappreciated items in our 21st century society.

There is a place here on the west coast where you can make your own knife from scratch. It’s an all-day event where you do everything from pounding the red-hot steel to grinding the blade down, forming the handle, fitting the brass and polishing it up. There is a couple that runs it out of their own shop, and they show you how to do everything. Everybody ends up with their own unique knife. Here are the rest of the knives the class made yesterday.

The knife you made is so cool. It will be an heirloom. I kept a kitchen knife my great grand father made 100 years ago. It isn’t too pretty, but I love that he forged it with his own hands. It is like that with ancient pottery too. You can see the finger print of someone from 1000 years ago. Makes them real somehow. Great photos too.
.-= Erin´s last blog ..Be Strong and Courageous =-.

This is an amazing bit of writing – I think this is one of those things I will have to come back and re-read every month. It strikes me how magical that knife seems. 200 years ago, probably most people knew someone who knew how to make things. Today, we are so disconnected from how we actually get our lives done….

Hi jenjen. Standardized parts was a real boon to manufacturing and it allowed people much better access to tools, but it also meant that the days of tools being unique an personal was coming to a close. My knife has all sorts of imperfections in it, and for that reason you’ll never see another quite like it.

“It is another stinging irony of being human: our affinity and aptitude for making tools has left us bored and underappreciative of them. Our lives are so full of stuff that they cease anymore to be things. Another depressing side-effect of mass production is that we accept such poor quality as the norm. We can have more stuff if we opt for the least expensive stuff — that which was churned out with the least pride and offers the least joy.”

It’s a subtle (or not so) combination of ecomic laws, marketing, advertising and …human urges (e.g. the pursuit of happiness).
As far as I am concerned, enjoying life is not enjoying “tools” (although I admit I need internet), it’s getting into the “flow”.
I mean in order to reappreciate my happiness level, imagining myself in a Survivor episode does not make it ;-)) !!
Learning to simplify my life, to feel just good the way I am/ the way things are( the famous “accept what it is” mantra which goes back from the Stoicians to…Katie Byron), is the superpower I need to work on. See also “A Man In Full” by Tom Wolf, or “The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint”, by Brady Udall . :-)

Hi David – Your post makes me think about how much less I need to be a Super Hero and how much more room there is to appreciate all I have. I spend a good deal of time, by choice, in a tiny cabin where my “tools” are limited to some basics: shelter, wood stove, small kitchen and bath, bed, a few books. No internet connection, no cell phone connection, etc. Yet I know my ancestors would think it’s paradise. And when I go out into the surrounding Redwood forest, I like to imagine them. And when I do return to “civilization,” I appreciate it so much more. Thanks for reminding me of this. Beautiful prose, as always.
.-= Patty – Why Not Start Now?´s last blog ..The Kindness of Strangers =-.

Thanks Patty. I have noticed that most of us are attracted to simplicity in some way. The idea of spending time away from civilization is quite appealing, even though we get quite hooked on its amenities too. I love backpacking with just a few dozen possessions. I have so much gratitude for them, much more than I did at home. My keyring flashlight, for example. Last night a group of five of us went down to the beach at dusk to watch for the penguins’ nightly arrival (we didn’t see any.) When it was time to go back, it was dark and we had to make our way through a winding, unlit rainforest path back to the hostel. I happened to have my keyring LED and the flashlight function on my cell phone, and with those two tiny lights I shepherded the whole group through the pitch black forest. We would have been it real trouble without them.

I can’t explain how I feel after reading this…in awe of all you are experiencing, overwhelmed with gratitude for my life, awake & alive just by feeling that gratitude, etc. Thank you.
.-= Suzanne´s last blog ..The Beginning of My 2010 Decluttering Challenge =-.

I went for a hike today, 1300m up a mountain, with just a few of my favorite tools. Was very grateful to have decent shoes; without them it wouldn’t have been possible. Such a simple thing but it goes such a long way.

On the point and beautifully expressed, as always. I too am in awe of what you are experiencing and grateful you are sharing it with us. Have safe travels, and hope U get to cut something cool with your knife.:-)
“Mass production has brought affordable tools to everyone in excess. It has given us mass expectations, and minimal gratitude.” Absolutely.

This completely rocks my world. I love that you made your own knife. It is an heirloom. Keep it, pass it down to your sons (or daughters!) or sibling’s children, if you don’t have any. (I guess I could check your profile.)

This part struck me too: “The problem then, is not that the world is more advanced or more complex, but that our technological lives have made us become more accustomed to thinking about places we aren’t currently at, people we aren’t with, and things we are not doing.”

Boy, talk about a win-win situation–with some land and a little iron age technology, you can get people to come to your house and give you $120 each for the experience of making a treasured keepsake that is both beautiful and useful. I paid that much for my new Cutco kitchen knife. What a great way to make a living, being a teacher/artisan/historian/entrepreneur without ever leaving your home. Could you do that?
BTW, the comment luv thing below says Scuba TV from Blogger and that has nothing to do with me. Just another kink, I guess. There’s always something to ‘iron’ out. :)
.-= Brenda (betaphi)´s last blog ..Scuba TV =-.

It struck me as such a great business idea. They are full (10 or so people) six days a week, almost every day of the summer. The same model would never fly in the US or Canada because of liability issues. As far as I know, in New Zealand private litigation is not allowed.

I await the day when people take time from their lives to humbly remember their ancestors who needed to drive to get to their destination and carry around a device in their pockets to communicate when desired.

I always enjoy epiphanies that help me to remember my place in this giant continuum of reality and time. One of my favorites is to walk down the street looking at other people and realizing that not only am I one of them but that they all have experiences at least as amazing as mine.

Recently I’ve also taken time to appreciate how many things around us are happening that we depend on despite that we can’t even conceive them. The sound of a car running is actually the sound of explosions happening so fast that our ears can’t distinguish between them. The sunlight that’s hitting the sidewalk is actually the result of a chemical reaction thousands of miles away. When I get into the right mood, I feel like it’s impossible to run out of things to appreciate.

[blockquote]I await the day when people take time from their lives to humbly remember their ancestors who needed to drive to get to their destination and carry around a device in their pockets to communicate when desired.[/blockquote]

Great point Kai. I remember a time when people wrote letters on paper, it was crazy.

Technology really is amazing. Just think – 10 years ago you wouldn’t have half the things you listed! It seems impossible. Back in the 90s I remember thinking about “the future” in the flying car sense, but things have changed so much since then that my whole idea of the word changed. Now I envision some freaky coalescence of humans and computers – people are almost always seconds away from plugging into a network as it is, if they so choose. Well, about 25% of the world. The earth I mean. Just think, in 10 years the whole idea of “the future” has changed. The rate of technological innovation is increasing, so what will the future possibly hold? Hopefully not disaster.

Anyway, aside from that tangent – I respectfully disagree that we are basically the same, mentally, as our ancestors. They necessarily had “ethnocentric” worldviews because they functioned as families or tribes, and outsiders were…outsiders. If I am alone and naked in the wilderness, I am sure going to revert to an egocentric worldview. So I think all of our interconnective technology is changing us. In just the past few decades, religious doctrine and absolutist views have been falling by the wayside. Alright, that’s enough elaboration.

Hi Brad. By “the same” I’m referring to innate biological traits. Worldview varies wildly, even among people of the same era and area. Yes technology is definitely changing us. In one generation of heavy computer use, penmanship has gone to hell :)

Our intelligence, as a species, has remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years. Yet the knowledge today that we must acquire and process during the course of our lifetime has increased and continues to increase exponentially. The fact that we are coping with this is quite a testimony to the adaptability of our species. Perhaps it is why we are still alive, at least for now!

The theme of this discussion is tool appreciation and our ability to create them. But one nagging question continues to haunt me: What have we lost because of this? I’m not talking about the fact that I am an engineer and I can’t use a slide rule (device of the past). I am talking about our over-dependence on our mind. Our minds are so busy thinking that we forget that our mind in its self is a tool to be used by us, and put away when were done thinking.

Aghast, what would I be doing if my mind would not be thinking, about something. One favorite quote of mine is that our mind is like a crowd. If there are no people there is not a crowd and if there are no thoughts there is no mind.

I play quite a bit of tennis. I play my best when I don’t think. See the ball, run to the ball, hit the ball. It is so visceral, so in-the-moment, so feeling, so now, and so not using-the-mind.

Our ancestors spent more of there time in-the-moment. Unless we condition ourselves to live in the moment this may become a lost skill. It has been said that eternity is just another dimension of now. When we are fearful, lamenting, and any one of a thousands of other take-us-out-of-the-moment emotions we are wasting moments in our life.

I can’t help to wonder if I were brought up being taught the teachings of Buddha in place of the Catholic Church’s man made doctrine designed to make us dependent on that institution for a “donation” of 10% of your lifetime earnings, would I be better equipped to enjoy life, now. The answers we seek are right inside all of us. Oh the irony, so I lament now and I am not in the moment.

What a great comment. Thanks Drew, I think you’re right on. We’ve become extremely dependent on the mind, a tool we never seem to want to put down. Sports are one good way to get out attention off of our thoughts and onto something outside our heads. People are attracted to all sorts of activities that do just that. I find my thinking really quiets down when I’m using a sharp-as-hell knife.

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